Sweden defeats Latvia, sets up showdown with United States in Olympic quarterfinals

MILAN -- Erik Karlsson said Team Sweden came to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 knowing they would eventually play the United States.

As the Swedish defenseman once famously said, the time is nigh.

“It’s a challenge, it’s a fun challenge. That’s why we came here to play these guys,” Karlsson said after Team Sweden’s 5-1 win against Team Latvia that set up their quarterfinal matchup with Team USA on Wednesday (3:10 p.m ET; Peacock, NBC, ICI Tele, CBC Gem, CBC [JIP], SN, TSN [JIP]).

“For everybody, including ourselves, it’s probably a little bit earlier than we expected to be, but it is what it is, we put ourselves here, but like I said, I came to play these games, I think everybody else did, too. We expected to play them and we get to do it tomorrow.”

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: LATVIA-SWEDEN

Sweden heads into the showdown with the U.S. after a win where it looked like the team that was considered one of the favorites for the gold medal when the Olympics began.

Mika Zibanejad, William Nylander and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist, Filip Forsberg and Adrian Kempe also scored, Lucas Raymond had three assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves for Sweden to get his second win in as many games after serving as Filip Gustavsson’s backup for the first two games.

“It feels like the chemistry showed up tonight,” Karlsson said. “I think it was our most complete game as a team. It felt like everyone did what they needed to do.

“And hopefully, that can be a positive thing for us and like I said, and the end of the day, we came to play the bigger nations and tomorrow we get that opportunity.”

When asked what was working well, Zibanejad said, “I think just the fundamentals of the game. The forecheck, the way we defend. I think just putting ourselves in a good spot when we don’t have the puck. That’s getting better and better and clearer. Little by little it’s been getting better so that’s a good sign.”

Elvis Merzlikins made 23 saves and Eduards Tralmaks scored for Latvia, which leaves Milan with one win in four games.

“Definitely disappointed,” Latvia forward Zemgus Girgensons said. “Going out with a loss is never easy. I think overall, we held it together pretty well. It was small breaks of chances that we gave up that we probably could have eliminated. When it is teams like this, you know they will capitalize on the mistakes. This is a game of mistakes in a tournament like this.”

Sweden jumped out to an early lead with Kempe and Landeskog scoring 41 seconds apart in the first period thanks to some fortuitous bounces.

Latvia’s Teddy Blueger tried to make a pass out of his defensive zone, but the puck hit the skates of Nylander and went to the stick of Sweden teammate Joel Eriksson Ek, whose shot on goal hit Kempe’s right skate and went in for a 1-0 lead at 10:55.

WATCH: Men's Hockey Highlights from the Winter Olympic Games

On the next shift, Zibanejad’s shot from the right point hit off Raymond in front of the net and went to Landeskog, who kicked the puck to his stick before putting it past Merzlikins for a 2-0 lead at 11:36.

“I like the way we’ve grown as a group in these last two games,” defenseman Victor Hedman said.

Sweden went up 3-0 at 7:36 of the second period when Forsberg redirected home a pass from Karlsson. It was the first goal of the Olympics for Forsberg.

Latvia cut Sweden’s lead to 3-1 at 10:47 when Tralmaks pounced on a rebound in the slot and put it past Markstrom.

Zibanejad made it 4-1 at 5:54 of the third period, finishing a 2-on-1 with Raymond. Nylander then made it 5-1 at 13:18, taking a pass from Raymond near the goal and putting a backhand shot past Merzlikins.

It was Raymond’s seventh assist in four games at the Olympics, giving him the most for Team Sweden in a single Olympic tournament with NHL players, passing the mark of six set by Peter Forsberg in 2006.

His three points led Sweden, which had 10 skaters find the scoresheet on Tuesday and three different lines getting a goal.

“Very important,” Landeskog said. “You want everybody playing. You need everybody contributing not necessarily on the scoresheet but I thought everybody did a good job tonight of playing hard, making little plays.

“You look at our fourth line for example, there’s plenty of times where maybe momentum is going against us but they do a good job of chipping it in behind them. We get our forecheck game going and all of a sudden momentum is turned. We’re going to need everybody, especially against the U.S. tomorrow.”

Sweden coach Sam Hallam, as he’s been this entire Olympics, was coy about if Markstrom would start Wednesday for the second straight day. Karlsson said whoever starts — whether it be Markstrom, Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt — Sweden feels good about its chances.

“'Marky’ was solid for us today,” Karlsson said. “As you know, we have three guys, that no matter what happens tomorrow, we’ll be fine.”

Hallam also pointed out that, unlike three of Sweden’s first four games here, the entire U.S. roster will be made up of NHL players, so there will be no surprises for Sweden.

“They are really looking forward to playing this game,” Hallam said. “More of a natural game to play. We’ve gone against a couple of teams where they are not really sure who we are playing against. Tomorrow, they know exactly every number on that team.”

Said Markstrom: “I’m here, one of 25 representing my country in an Olympics. I waited 36 years to get my first one and it’s a great feeling, but you don’t want it to end. You’ve got to keep pushing.”

NOTES: The game Wednesday will be the third time the U.S. and Sweden have played in an Olympics with NHL players, but the first time in the elimination round. Sweden beat the U.S. 2-1 in the round-robin in 2006 and 4-2 in 1998. … Team Sweden and Team Czechia have each qualified for the quarterfinals in six consecutive Olympic Winter Games with NHL involvement -- tied with Team Canada, Team Finland and Team USA for the most among all countries.